Abstract :
The Garden Houses in Ostia are a large-scale apartment complex built during the reign of Hadrian. The complex is most famous for its standardised layout of the medianum-apartments in the central courtyard.
By analysing the preserved internal staircases of the core apartments, the height of the buildings could be reconstructed; they appeared to correspond to the contemporary building regulations.
The consensus is that Roman apartments generally lacked water related facilities. An in-depth study of the Garden Houses on site, however, has revealed that the central apartments had a water drainage system and a direct connection to the urban water net.